Pruning is a beneficial but sometimes confusing practice for homeowners. Here are the mistakes that you need to avoid and the reasons why:

Incorrect Pruning Shearing: Many people assume that shears make it easier to prune trees. However, in most cases, only pruners or loppers should be used as they provide more leverage than shears and bypass any issues with the tree's bark. Using shears can cause damage to the tree when done incorrectly. This type of tree trimming will create an ugly scar on the tree, potentially leading to infection if not cleaned afterward properly.

Nasty Tree Nicks: A dirty job! When doing any bushes or trees around your home, make sure you clean up after yourself. Making sure you dispose of your trimmings far enough from the tree or bush in question that it doesn't come back to haunt you. Not trimming is a big mistake when maintaining your own trees.

Stay on Task and Stay Sharper: Another way homeowners make mistakes when trimming their trees is by becoming distracted.

Homeowners tend to get sidetracked and lose focus on what they are doing, leading to serious accidents, especially if there are kids around! It also leads to poor pruning as the homeowner won't actually finish what they started en route, distracted by other issues that may arise like children coming into the area being pruned, for example. So stay focused and stay sharper with tools!

Things to avoid:

-Topping a tree

-Pruning branches that are 3-4 inches in diameter

-Lion Tailing

-Taking too much off the tree crown

-Causing injury to the bark of a tree

What kind of material should be used? Tools or shears or pruners? Why do you think this way?

Pruning branches off 3-4 inches in diameter will require a lot more pruning on the tree. This is also known as a topping. The tree may look better immediately after being topped, but it won't survive long term if it's been topped badly and is not healthy before being topped. If you have a tree that is already sick though with poor health, then topping can be an option to save the tree by killing all of its current growth, which makes removing the bad parts of the tree easier while giving it time to grow again without having to remove and replace the tree completely.

Lion Tailing is when a tree or branch is slashed through at an angle to create a jagged effect. This looks great sometimes, but compared to a nice clean cut, it creates an unfinished look that is off-putting in some cases and induces anger towards whoever did the lion-tailed cut by others because of its appearance. It also can spread disease if done on the wrong tree! So don't lion tail unless you plan on topping your tree as well.

Taking too much off the crown of a tree means that you will soon have to do additional pruning work before you should have to again for it not to be over-trimmed. In extreme cases, this can lead to eventual death or severe illness by being too far gone already. Most of the time, it just means that you may get a few more dead branches than usual or have more limb loss that is not known to be specific to any cause, for example, disease or poor pruning practices.

Let's elaborate on the topic of incorrect pruning shearing: A lot of people assume that shears make things easier when pruning trees, but they don't, as discussed previously in this article and will create a scar that could potentially lead to infection if not cleaned properly afterwords (and even then there are no guarantees!). The tree may look healthier short term because all its issues have been removed, but long term, you'll probably find out faster than later that it was, in fact, detrimental. So never use shears and always use pruners.

Homeowners tend to get sidetracked and lose focus on what they are doing, leading to serious accidents, especially if there are kids around! It also leads to poor pruning as the homeowner won't actually finish what they started en route, distracted by other issues that may arise like children coming into the area being pruned, for example. So stay focused and stay sharper with tools!

This article is written by Tree Removal in Everett